History Made with Virtual Reality Debate

CNN’s Democratic debate on Tuesday provided viewers with a
unique way of getting to see the presidential contenders – the political event
was live streamed in virtual reality, the first of its kind, thanks to a
partnership with NextVR.

In a press release revealing the historic moment, CNN stated that “users [would be]
able to hold a gaze on a particular candidate, catch off-screen interactions
and more.”

“I think [virtual reality] really does change the way you’re able to perceive
things,” said Luckey. “If you’re talking about a war zone, if you’re talking
about a political debate, if you’re talking about some kind of rally, knowing
what is actually happening in that scene, as opposed to what a person is able
to capture, or the story they want to capture through the frame of a camera … outlets
are going to have to be really responsible with this.”

With all of that being said, what was the reaction to how
the CNN stream went?

TheVerge’s Adi Robertson wrote
that “feeling the bright lights of the stage and hearing the crowd applaud all
around you captures a real excitement that's not there on a flat screen,” but
thought some improvements could be made like the addition of a social media
component.

And Re/code’s liveblog coverage noted that “One of the joys of VR … is that you can always see
which candidates are gesturing wildly to get Cooper’s attention. Desperation is
good TV.”

Something you can see in VR you might miss in TV: Cooper uses his hands to try to signal he wants to cut in. Body language is interesting.